Mick Flannery (born 28 November 1983) is an Irish singer and songwriter.

His debut album Evening Train resulted from his time spent studying music and management at Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa in Cork. It featured tracks which had previously won Flannery two categories at the International Songwriting Competition in Nashville, Tennessee, as judged by his idol, Tom Waits. He was the first Irish musician to win in this event.

Flannery was reared on farmland outside Blarney, County Cork.[2][3][4]

Coming from a family with a keen musical interest, Flannery was introduced to folk and blues music at a young age.

“

My mother's side were big into music, more than my dad's side. My mother is a singer and she plays the guitar. She recorded an album of her own actually two years ago. And it was her brothers and sisters that kind of got me into music. [...] At those family nights there was a good bit of Tom Waits, a bit of Dylan. Most of the singers would be female, my aunts, and they would sing Tracy Chapman and Joni Mitchell.[5]

However, he is keen to express his fondness for stonemasonry and its position alongside his music: "I wasn't going to sit in a room and write songs seven days a week and live on bread and beans. I liked doing stonemasonry as well".[7] He still does it on an occasional basis: "We wouldn’t be carving gravestones or anything. We’d do the fronts of houses, entrance walls, stuff like that".[8]

While undergoing a music and management course at Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa in Cork, Flannery commenced writing the album that would become Evening Train, an eleven-track concept album about the exploits of two brothers.[2][9] His original intention had been to write a musical but this endeavour proved unsuccessful.[2]

Before its release Flannery and a friend who worked alongside him in the stonemasonry business embarked on a three-month trip to the United States, living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.[6][10] Flannery spent his time performing in New York.[6] His sister was present for one of the months and assisted him with organising his performances.[10] Flannery, however, quickly became disillusioned by the New York music scene, and referred to it in one interview as "a bit up its own arse".[6]

Evening Train was received positively by critics in Ireland and the United States.[2] Reviewers noted its "astute and sophisticated lyrics", its "strong, imaginative melodies", its Tom Waits sound.[3][9][11] The RTÉ Guide later said, "His voice was like Tom Waits meets the howling of a grizzled freight train hobo".[12]entertainment.ie reviewer Lauren Murphy described it as "an album dripping with maturity, poise and potential" and that "the most astounding thing" was his age of 21 years.[6][11]

Flannery signed with EMI Records in 2007.[2][6] That same year he was the subject of a programme called Mytunes, broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 on 29 November.[9] He performed on RTÉ Two's Other Voices television programme in 2008.[2] This appearance led to increased interest in Flannery's music in Ireland.[13]

Flannery's second studio album White Lies was released on 12 September 2008,[6] achieving a top ten position on the Irish Albums Chart and later going platinum in Ireland.[3][14] On the day of the album's release Flannery performed "Tomorrow's Papers" on The Late Late Show.[15][16] The song contributed to the increasing popularity of the singer-songwriter.[17] entertainment.ie's Lauren Murphy said: "White Lies may not be a perfect album, but it's certainly a promising step forward for a real talent".[11]RTÉ reviewer Harry Guerin commented: "If you're adamant that Ireland may sink with another singer-songwriter on tour, then this is a record to seek out; you won't notice the time passing and the nation will remain afloat".[13]

Flannery's largest headlining performance in Dublin at this stage occurred at Vicar Street on 25 May 2009.[23] He performed alongside John Spillane at Live at the Marquee in Cork on 9 July 2009.[17][24][25][26] Flannery said being asked to perform there was "daunting [...] In many ways I have drifted into this career and still have to pinch myself regularly to make sure I am not imagining it all".[27] He also performed at the Bloom Festival as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of The Rose of Tralee in 2009.[28] He made an appearance on the Crawdaddy Stage at Electric Picnic 2009.[29][30][31] On 31 December 2009, he performed a date at the Cork Opera House as part of celebrations marking the end of the decade.[32][33] He has sold out several other venues around Ireland and has also toured the UK.[16][34]

Flannery released his third studio album, Red to Blue, on 30 March 2012. It spent three weeks at number one in the Irish Albums Chart and singles "Gone Forever" and "No Way To Live" enjoyed a lot of airplay. The Red to Blue tour was a major success for Flannery, featuring sold-out shows all over Ireland, most notably the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, one of Flannery's biggest venues to date. The tour finished with two sold-out shows at the Róisín Dubh in Galway. He's been making head in Germany, living in Berlin.[35]

Mick Flannery performing at the music festival "Bardentreffen" 2013 in Nuremberg

Flannery's sister Sarah is a past winner of the Esat Young Scientist Exhibition.[36] His mother's family live in Coolroe near Killarney.[36] Flannery has a difficult relationship with his younger brother David, whom he had to reprimand regularly when they were younger due to his 'peeping Tom' tendency among the villagers, namely an elderly woman who once knitted the young David a pair of socks. Mick states, in one of his more intimate interviews "David seemed to take the socks as a gesture of Mrs Murphy's sexual desire for him".

Flannery is known to be a shy individual.[6][7] He has admitted experiencing strong stage fright before performances.[10] He does not often use a computer, preferring instead to ask others to update his Facebook and MySpace accounts, although this leaves him with "really sick" feelings when people come to him at his shows to thank him for replying to their messages.[8]

Flannery tends to socialise with his fellow stonemasons instead of with other singer-songwriters.[6] They prefer to talk about sex instead of music.[12] He also enjoys playing poker.[10] He has admitted: "I'm a sour bollocks. I wouldn't be the life and soul of any party. I'd be sitting in the corner".[12]

Mick Flannery performing at the music festival "Bardentreffen" 2013 in Nuremberg

The Irish Times placed him at number forty-six in a list of "The 50 Best Irish Acts Right Now" published in April 2009,[40] commenting on his album White Lies: "With this stunning exhibition of the gravel-voiced musician's abilities, Flannery turned his hand to mournful piano ballads and catchy guitar tunes with a flair that far surpasses his 25 years".[41]

Flannery won in two categories in the International Songwriting Competition in Nashville, Tennessee: "In the Gutter" in the category of Folk Singer-Songwriter and "The Tender" in the category of Lyrics Only.[2][4] This came from a panel of judges which featured several renowned songwriters, including Flannery's idol, Tom Waits.[2][3][6][7] He was the first Irish musician to win in this competition.[2][9] The two songs featured on the album Evening Train.[16]

Flannery lost to Jape, though he was mentioned in the acceptance speech, as frontman Richie Egan mentioned what his mother had told him before the award: “They all deserve the award – sure my mother even told me that Mick Flannery was going to win, she said you're good, Ritchie [sic], but he's gorgeous”.[48]

^ abEoin Butler (1 August 2009). "Talk time". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 January 2010. You have two well-received albums under your belt, but you're actually a stonemason by trade. Are you finished with all that now? No, I did two weeks helping a buddy finish a job before Christmas. He'll call on me now and again if I'm not gigging and ask me if I want to come out and do a day. We wouldn't be carving gravestones or anything. We'd do the fronts of houses, entrance walls, stuff like that. Using a lump hammer and chisel? Yeah. It's hard work, especially in the winter. But, I'll tell you, when I left it to do music . . . it was weird at first. In stonemasonry, you'd do a long day's work and sleep soundly at night because you're properly tired. When you're doing gigs, you're more mentally tired than anything else. You have a couple of drinks and try and get to sleep. But it's not the same. So getting back to stonemasonry for a day or two when I can is always nice. [...] It's a bit of a culture shock then, isn't it, moving from that into the world of media or public relations? God yeah, there's so much nonsense. Take MySpace and Facebook and all of that, for example. I don't get on a computer often, but I have people working on those sites on my behalf. From time to time, they'd send out messages to people. So then these people approach me at gigs to thank me for wishing them a happy birthday and I have no idea what they're talking about. I find that really sick, you know? [...] Your third album is mostly written. Do you have particular ambitions for it? I'm not hung up about record sales, but I've always wanted to record one of those albums that lodges itself in the public consciousness, that has its own stamp creatively, rather than commercially. Something like Tom Wait's Closing Time, Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska or Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks. That's what I aspire to.

^"Mick Flannery for Dublin headliner". Hot Press. 7 October 2008. Retrieved 9 January 2010. The singer's sophomore White Lies release made the top 10 in Ireland, with a healthy amount of national radio play building him an enthusiastic following.

^"Etc: Choice gigs". The Irish Times. 30 January 2009. Retrieved 9 January 2010. Choice music prize nominees Mick Flannery, Halfset and Messiah J The Expert have all booked gigs in Dublin. Flannery plays his biggest headline gig at Vicar Street on May 25th; Halfset team up with Adrian Crowley for a Whelan's double-header on March 13th; and MJEX hit The Academy on the same night.

^Tony Clayton-Lea (31 December 2009). "Rocking out the decade". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 January 2010. In Cork (Opera House), Mick Flannery does his accomplished singer- songwriter thing, while in Galway (Róisín Dubh) Fight Like Apes, Messiah J the Expert, Disconnect 4, Le Galaxie and Feed the Bears pave the way for a sore head on New Year's Day.

^Tony Clayton-Lea (24 December 2009). "Going out: The Gig guide". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 January 2010. New Year's Eve best bets around the country include Mick Flannery (Cork), Jerry Fish (Dublin) and Fight Like Apes (Galway).

^ abcGenevieve Carbery (18 April 2009). "My Holidays". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 January 2010. I visited my sister [the former Young Scientist winner Sarah Flannery] in San Francisco. She's lived over there for the last couple of years. [...] I like going down to Kerry. My mother's family live down there in Coolroe, outside Killarney. It's nice there, with beautiful mountains, lakes and natural landscape.

^Jim Carroll, Tony Clayton-Lea, Sinéad Gleeson, Lauren Murphy (3 April 2009). "The 50 best Irish music acts right now". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 12 April 2010. Retrieved 16 August 2009. 2008 was a good year for Mick Flannery. The former stonemason had hung up his chisel in search of musical fulfilment several years back, yet his 2005 debut album (Evening Train) failed to make any huge impression, despite the Corkonian's talent as a writer and performer. Last year's Choice- nominated White Lies changed everything. With this stunning exhibition of the gravel-voiced musician's abilities, Flannery turned his hand to mournful piano ballads and catchy guitar tunes with a flair that far surpasses his 25 years.

^Ronan McGreevy (18 March 2009). "Meteoric rise continues for The Script". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 January 2010. Cork singer-songwriter Mick Flannery pulled off something of a surprise, winning best Irish male in a strong field and ahead of the highly-tipped Duke Special and Choice Music Prize winner Jape.

^"7 of 10 acts to play at Choice Prize show". The Irish Times. 13 February 2009. Retrieved 9 January 2010. Fight Like Apes, Mick Flannery, Halfset, Jape, Messiah J The Expert and R.S.A.G. will perform at the ceremony, which takes place at Dublin's Vicar Street on March 4th. Lisa Hannigan, Oppenheimer and The Script are unavailable due to prior touring commitments, and Belfast DJ/musician David Holmes does not perform live.